I need a little something light and Christmasy this time of year. Found this at the thrift store, so why not give it a whirl.

It was funny, but not laugh-out-loud, "I need to read this every Christmas" funny. I'm glad I read it and I may try reading her other books again (I tried to read her first one years ago and couldn't stand it, so I stopped after a few chapters).

Laurie Notaro is a freelance writer for some magazine/newspaper or something, and she's supposed to be really funny. This is her first book I'm reading , and her humor is like Dave Barry's - most of the time it's okay, but there are moments when you laugh really hard.

UPDATE: Funny at times, but doesn't really live up to my expectations. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either.

I love all of Notaro's books the same. She has a new one coming out on June 23rd 2008. Her books are filled with witty humor and never fail to make me laugh my head off.

This was very funny. A nice, easy book to read by the pool. Super short. I think I finished it the same afternoon I started it.

This book was a very quick read. I struggled at the beginning, as her constant sarcasm and rudeness got old. But I kept going and was more pleased with the second half. There isn't one sentence of seriousness though.

This is a quick read. Some of the anecdotes were familiar and I shared her "pain". Some made me chuckle, but nothing was really laugh out loud. But during the busy holidays, reading one or two of these funny stories can be amusing.

I know that it's after Christmas, but this was the last Laurie Notaro book that I had to read... This was my least favorite of all of her books. It made me laugh, but I was annoyed that she repeated a few stories from previous books. Why??? If she didn't have enough new material for a whole book, she just should have left it alone.

I think I'm done with Notaro for right now. It's not that I didn't enjoy this - I did, in places - but I think I'm getting diminishing returns - less laughter with each subsequent book. I'm also getting sort of tired of Notaro. One book is apparently my recommended yearly dose of her, and now that I've had three times that, I'm definitely feeling like I've overdosed.

The good news is that this book didn't make me flinch the way I Love Everybody did - there's less childishness and less shrieking. Notaro really has refined her voice a lot. It's just that she's kept in some parts I really wish she'd get rid of, and the number one entry on that list is self-deprecation. I have a few friends who can't open their mouths without insulting themselves, and I love them anyway, but talking to them can make me twitch. (And I can insult myself with the best of them, I truly can. I mean, I'm female, of course I can. But I try to keep that from being my primary mode of communication, is all.) Laurie Notaro is just like them - I'm so fat! I'm so clumsy! I'm so dumb! I'm so messy! I'm such a walking disaster of a person! - except here's the thing: she's not my friend. And so, it turns out, I don't love her anyway.

I guess the thing is - I want to laugh with Notaro. Not at her. And after three books, I'm just not doing much of either. Instead, I'm asking myself a lot of depressed questions, like: is this the only way a woman can be funny? By cutting herself down before anyone else gets the chance to?

In short, I need to back away from Laurie Notaro for a while, until I can read her books with more joy than sadness again.

I always laugh out loud when I am reading Laurie's books. This one didn't disappoint. Who doesn't want to laugh about the tension that the holidays bring. If you are looking for a book that helps you feel like it isn't only your family that is crazy or that you aren't the only one about to snap -- this is it. A tonic for our times--that is the stressful, joyful holidays.

The story about going to Kmart on Christmas Eve late at night had me in tears...hysterical!!!

I just got this for Christmas last year (the year before?) and how good of me to just get around to reading it now. Not that I was begrudging reading it. I own The Idiot Girl's Action Adventure Guide and I thought that was hilarious. No reason to think the Christmas version would be any different.

And it wasn't. Notaro has this jaded snark about her that only comes with years of battling Murphy's Law tooth and nail only to end up in a drunken stupor with the guy at the end of it all. While Notaro is a chick, and while there is a period story mixed in there, either sex could read this book and get a kick out of it.

My favorite story was probable the first one in the book, about the shit-tastic Christmas gifts she always got, including the partially used ones. I am so lucky not to have family without clues. Although I do have one member and I have received something equivalent to half-used soap and an ugly sweater. I have a cousin who used to work at a now-defunct Big Box Store and she'd do all of her Christmas shopping at their sample store. I'm sure you can imagine what gems were borne of that trip. So imagine my surprise when I open my Christmas gift from her to get this red plaid ankle-length (complete with wrist and neck frills) nightgown paired with equally plaidy and frilly matching booties. I was maybe 16 when I got that. Personally I think that monstrosity pwns any ugly sweater a person could get. Pollyanna would have burned the thing in a field had she gotten it. Of course I had to put on my thank you face before I tucked it into the darkest recesses of my dresser drawer never to glace at it again. That is until it was exorcised and cast into my local Salvation Army. Sorry guys. But I'd rather freeze. Or field-dress a moose to obtain my own footie pajamas.

But really, the thing is the stories in this book are bound to hit you in one way or another because, during the holidays, we are all prone to come kind of Christmastime bat shittery. There's always that one relative that no one wants to deal with, that one Christmas present that you'd rather feed to a wood chipper and that one party that just gets a little too out of hand for its own good. We all have those stories (or will eventually, just give it time). Notaro just has a knack for self-deprecating humor that says, "You are not alone. Why don't you drink with me?"

It's not blatant or over the top. These stories are just, at their core, absolutely hilarious and they're fueled by Notaro's ability to spin a yarn into an ugly sweater with blinking lights. And one of them's out. If you have a chance to read any of her books, I'd highly recommend them. I've yet to meet one I haven't liked.

she writes like me- how can I not love her books??? Super funny and super true.